Synopsis
A tale of Elizabethan England focuses on the murder of a poet, playwright, and sometimes spy, Christopher Marlowe, as two men are hired by rival political factions to investigate the event
Reviews
Completing his masterful trilogy of novels set in Elizabethan England, Garrett again applies distinguished literary skills to spin a tale dark with deception and metaphysical questions but teeming with sensuous and concrete details that convey the spirit of the age. In 1597, when it seems that "half the people in England are spying on the other half," two Londoners skilled in deceit are forcibly enjoined by rival factions to investigate the recent death of dissolute poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe. Each of the two--Joseph Hunnyman, "common player" and con man, and Captain William Barfoot, soldier and spy--is aware of the other's investigation, but they come together, only through a third party, the provocative widow Alysoun. Like an impressionist painting, vivid in its small, shimmering details, the novel conveys a picture of Renaissance society, offers richly nuanced character portraits, and sparkles with bawdy humor and robust sexuality. Garrett's prose is oblique, his sentences arrestingly truncated, his narrative method seemingly digressive; in no rush to spill out his story, he circles round and round its mysterious core. Though the plot here is less compelling than those of the two previous novels, readers will enjoy a novel of rare literary quality, richly marinated in research, wondrously steeped in the world it artfully depicts.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In the third of his Elizabethan novels ( Death of the Fox, LJ 8/71, and The Succession, 1985), Garrett uses the death of poet/playwright Christopher Marlowe to explore the rich tapestry of Elizabethan England. Both the handsome player Joseph Hunnyman and the battle-scarred soldier Captain Barfoot are approached by separate and unidentified parties eager to investigate the circumstances surrounding the stabbing of Marlowe, which had occurred four years earlier. As each explores his own particular milieu in an effort to discover the truth, the reader is given colorful glimpses of London's theatrical world, warring political and religious factions, and the violent world of spies, soldiers, and intriguers. While the constant shifting of narrators is sometimes confusing, the panoply of voices allows for unusually vivid psychological insights. Recommended for sophisticated readers of historical fiction. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/90.
- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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